


duty

by naga-ame (rokutouxei)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: i guess, petra's here too, to a certain degree
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 08:18:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4557402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rokutouxei/pseuds/naga-ame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>whatever the corporal does, he swears it's because of duty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	duty

**Author's Note:**

> [[tumblr]](http://rokutouxei.tumblr.com/post/112274765147/duty)

When the Corporal first talked to Ackerman, it was because of duty.

The girl had let herself be run in by her emotions once more. The mission to protect Eren on the test run to Shiganshina was anything but successful. However, had he not come on time; had she made more rash decisions, it would have served the Recon Corps more loss. (He could not risk any more of such.) He had not even bothered to stand up from his seat. It was more lecture than heart-to-heart. He was causing enough pain just sitting behind his desk, staring her down.  _Your priorities are as follows: the survival rate, or your emotions  towards the brat.Weigh it,_ he said.

_Don’t give yourself a weakness._

* * *

When the Corporal trained with Ackerman, it was because of duty.

Erwin had recommended her for training: the top graduate of the 104th training squad, one of high caliber.  _We’re lucky she is in the Corps,_ the Commander had noted, almost absentmindedly, when he had called the Corporal in his office to talk about it. It had gotten around that Mikasa training with who was considered the humanity’s strongest soldier was already a given. The others thought—Jean and Connie and Armin mostly—the moment she returned from any day of training: if she was terrifying before then she would be even more terrifying now, and much, much stronger. In the end of the day, no one paid heed to the Corporal sitting on his bed after the training, physically exhausted, recalling punches and blows and open points, knowing quite well how every blow, every hit was so painfully different from that who he trained with before.

(It would take a while.)

* * *

When the Corporal had chosen Ackerman among those who were to accompany him on what would probably be their most critical mission in the recent years, it was because of duty.

It was a suicide mission, after all. Skill and trust through respect was well-needed to those who were leading squads, the whole of humanity. Those were long days, sweat and blood. Wearing the wings of freedom behind them, the Recon Corps had survived, had won. The mission to retrieve Wall Maria was a success.

They returned home to rest, as Commander Erwin went into Sina to report of their success personally. The Corporal wiped his hands, his blades til they were clean of blood. At the end of the day, all the broken bones and bloody faces, it was a soldier’s duty to forget.

* * *

But when Levi’s lips slant over hers (eventually), when it feels like silk as well, when it tastes a little different to the pair which had filled to match sunflower-colored hair, when the guilty feeling sinks into the pits of his stomach right underneath where Mikasa’s hands touch his skin, he thinks it’s his duty, anyway—

—the duty to remember.


End file.
